Worse than the Worst
by Yodeling Prospector
Summary: Loki had expected imprisonment, torture or death for his actions on Midgard. Maybe all three. He never would have guessed that he would be made Tony Stark's slave.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this story is based on the awesome** _ **Poetic Justice**_ **by Limmet. I read it last week in three and a half days. It introduced me to the Frostiron pairing, which is my OTP for Avengers.**

 **To be honest, I'm not entirely sure where this story is going.** **However, I can guarantee that there will be no erotic scenes in this, so if that's what you're looking for this is not the fic for you.**

Loki didn´t know how long he´d been in the hell that was the deepest dungeon of Asgard. He'd been here since his failed attempt to conquer Midgard. Though he didn't know how long ago that was, he knew they certainly were taking their sweet time deciding on his fate up there.

Loki had experienced constant pain since he was dragged down to this dungeon. His wrists were torn from scraping against the cuffs chaining his arms above his head, and his arms were horribly stiff and cramped from being in that position for so long. His stomach informed him that it was in desperate need of nourishment, as if he hadn't noticed he had was lacking it. The only time the muzzle covering his mouth came off was when he was force-fed disgusting gruel.

In addition to the cuffs around his wrists were two thin chains that cut off his magic, meaning he was unable to quickly heal his injuries or lessen the pain. He was essentially a puny mortal.

But this was considered a good moment for him. At least he was alone. At least the guards weren't having their "fun" with him, adding to his already long list of pains. Kicking and punching were the least they ever did. Before, such things would be an annoyance for sure, but now they were torture. They could go on for hours, beating his entire body with sadistic glee. He wasn't even allowed the minuscule reprieve of being able to bend over when he was kneed in the stomach, because of his arms being chained above his head.

This paled in comparison to when the guards decided to get out their "instruments". When the whips or the knives came out, Loki knew he was in for a world of agonizing torture. He was rather surprised this hadn't killed him by now. After all, he was essentially a mortal without his magic.

He would scream, if that muzzle hadn't prevented him from doing so. He was long past the point of caring about pridefully holding them in, and instead held them in unwillingly.

"You know you deserve this, you worthless, power-hungry..." The jeers went on and on and he could say nothing in response. Though without the muzzle, he probably would've been too busy screaming to say anything anyways.

So when the guards entered his cell, he closed his eyes, trying to prepare himself for another round of abuse and torture. He waited for a blow to land on him, but nothing happened. Instead, he heard the sounds of chains clinking and was surprised when the guards unhooked him from the wall.

"Judgement day has arrived" One of them said in a jeering voice "And I'm sure you'll be coming back to stay. And then we can have some... _fun_." Loki would've swallowed if his throat hadn't been so dry. At least his arms weren't chained above his head anymore, though they were still chained.

One of the guards held on to the chains and they each grabbed one of his arms in a vice-like grip, making the various bruises and cuts there burn.

The guards dragged the god of mischief up countless flights of stairs. At last they emerged out of the dungeons and into the light. Loki, unaccustomed to the brightness, had to close his eyes. He would have been happy to be out of there, but that happiness was dominated by his dread of whatever horrible punishment awaited his crimes.

He was dragged in front of the Allfather (who wasn't _his_ father, he thought vehemently). He would later wonder why they he hadn't been made to look slightly presentable, but the thought didn't cross his mind at the time. So bloody, battered and reeking of filth, he was forcibly made to kneel and bow before Odin. "Loki Laufeyson," Odin's voice boomed out, cutting immediately to the point. "The council has decided that you are to be enslaved to a Midgardian."

Loki's eyes widened in shock. He had expected execution after being tortured in the dungeons some more. But no, he was going to be reduced to the lowest of the low, a _slave_. The fact that he would be enslaved to a lowly, worthless Midgardian added even more to the insult. Though slavery and the dungeons probably resulted in the same amount of beatings.

He would have protested or even asked which Midgardian he was to be enslaved to, but that accursed muzzle was preventing him from speaking. He would have screamed in rage if he could. He hadn't even gotten a fair trial. Nobody had even asked for his side of the story. Not that they would have believed him anyways. Why would they believe Thanos and the Chitauri had tortured him into joining them when he fell off the Bifrost? That he hadn't been doing all that on his own free will. It sounded like a pathetic excuse. He probably wouldn't believe it either.

Loki didn't give much thought when a charm was put over his body, temporarily hiding the bruises and cuts littering his body, hiding them for a couple days (as well as cleaning him up so he appeared halfway decent and making his clothes more presentable). After all, his new master would probably want a clean slate, would want to admire the effects his beatings would have on his new slave. If his battered form was showing at first, he doubted any new injuries would even be visible atop all the ones. As for the cleaning, nobody wanted a smelly slave right out of a dungeon.

Loki didn't pay attention as they traveled from Asgard to Midgard, too lost in his own thoughts. They were on the roof of a tower, and Loki felt sick when he realized where he was. After a couple minutes, they were joined by the last person Loki wanted to see: Tony Stark.

* * *

Tony Stark had clearly not been expecting them at all. He was dressed quite casually in a t-shirt and sweatpants (though, to be fair, he wouldn't have worn anything less casual if he'd known they were coming). It was his look of complete bafflement when he saw the Asgardian guards on his roof that gave it away. "Can someone please tell me why I have two guards of fairyland on my roof three months after..." He stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Loki. "What the hell is _he_ doing here?"

Both of Tony's comments were ignored. One of the guards pulled out a very official looking scroll and started to read. Loki was only half-listening as the guard read out "The council has decided the sentence of Loki Laufeyson..." He stared at the ground. Stark was the last person he wanted to be anywhere near. He no doubt had a (very justified) grudge against Loki. Both for throwing him out the window of Stark Tower and for trying to take over his planet. He had no doubt Stark would make him pay severly for those, probably at the first chance he got. Plus he had all his Avenger friends who Loki was sure would love to dish out a generous serving of revenge. He'd probably be given to the Hulk as an anger management doll or something. His nearly-mortal body definitely wouldn't survive that.

"... he will be made your slave, Man of Iron. You are not allowed to give him to anyone else." The guard paused and Tony gave him a look that clearly said he was off his rocker.

Loki listened to Tony's protests, and if it had been another situation, like one where they weren't declaring his punishment, he would have found the man's arguments amusing. As if it mattered that slavery was outlawed in Midgard. Asgard trumped Midgard any day.

"It would have been nice if someone had _asked_ me about this beforehand!" Tony was rambling. Loki inwardly thought the same, though he wisely chose not to voice his thoughts aloud. When Tony had asked why they'd chosen _him_ , the guards had explained that giving to any other Avenger would most likely result in his death (well, except Steve, but considering his finely tuned moral compass he'd just refuse). They could kill him perfectly well in Asgard if they wanted, and death was not the goal of his punishment.

"But he can still use magic!" Tony cried out, astounded at their stupidity. The guards were unfazed. "The chains around his wrists prevent him from using magic and make him unable to kill any mortal or himself. He is no threat to you."

Loki seethed at this. Three months ago (and he would not have guessed it had been three months) he was a very big threat indeed. Now, he was reduced to a powerless weakling, lower than this lowly mortal.

All of Tony's arguments proved ineffective of convincing the guards not to leave Loki with him. Eventually the guards left, leaving just Loki and his new _master_. The word was bitter in his thoughts.

Tony stared at Loki, but Loki wasn't looking at him. Looking directly at his master would surely result in a beating. So he stared at Stark's shoes, wondering if he'd be made to kiss them.

In the dungeons, he had thought his life was as bad as it could possibly get. Now, it was probably going to be a whole lot worse.

 **So next chapter will probably be from Tony's POV. Not sure when it'll be posted.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm really surprised I managed to update in two days, though it's a little shorter than last chapter. Well, I hope you enjoy!**

Tony's mind still hadn't fully wrapped itself around what had just happened. That he now had a _slave_. Sure he understood it intellectually, but it didn't seem real. When JARVIS had informed him that there were Asgardians on his roof, he had assumed it was Thor. But no, it had been those two guards who had come to dump the god of mischief, the one who'd tried to take over his planet, into his... care.

He studied the man in front of him. In reality, Loki was still taller than him by a good five inches, but somehow seemed to have shrunk. He certainly didn't have that air of arrogance around him. As he stared at Tony's feet, he looked like he wanted nothing more than to be ignored. It was a vast difference from the person who had killed countless people, thrown him out a window, and tried to take over the world three months before.

Tony felt his stomach churn with anger when he thought about what Loki had done, how many lives he had ruined. He wanted to make him pay for everything. Various ideas swirled around in his brain, some of which sickened him. At last, his mind landed on the perfect revenge.

"Kneel before me," Tony said, in the exact same way Loki had said it three months before. The god stiffened at this. At first he seemed shocked, but Tony could see the fury swirling behind his eyes. He doubted the god had kneeled before anyone in his life except the big daddy up in fairyland, and he could tell that Loki knew he was mocking him. Loki twitched violently at that as if he was having some internal struggle.

Loki remained standing, although he had a strangely determined look on his face, and Tony silently mocked himself for being so stupid. As if the god would ever lower himself and kneel before a mere mortal, slave or not. But his anger kept him going. He wanted to see the god submissive at his feet. He shouted, just as Loki had, "I said KNEEEEL!"

The god remained standing, and Tony couldn't tell that the god's internal conflict had ended and the rebellious side had won. Tony stuck out his arms and called his Iron Man gloves to him. As they situated themselves around his hands, and Loki's face grew considerably paler than it was normally when he glanced up and saw what was happening. Loki's whole body seemed to slump in defeat. In front of Tony's unbelieving eyes, he lowered himself onto one knee, still staring at his master's feet.

XXXXX

Loki hated the shoes he was staring at. Actually, he hated the man wearing them, but the shoes were an extension of him. He hated himself too. He had told himself that there was no way he would ever kneel to a mortal. Rebelling had felt good, but he had ended up obeying in the end. All it had taken was sight of Stark wearing the Iron Man gloves and all the fight had left him. He did not want to find out what those gloves would do to his pathetic mortal body, especially since he was already bruised and broken (though his master didn't know that). One punch would surely send him sprawling, and he didn't even want to think about what those blasts they shot out would do.

He stayed stiffly on one knee, horrible thoughts crashing around in his brain. What was going to happen to him? He hadn't obeyed an order immediately, which was almost as bad as disobeying it all together. Surely he would be punished severely for this, probably through those metal gloves. A beating from those would probably be ten times worse than a beating from the guards.

He waited tensely for a blow to strike him, but nothing came. Instead, a voice above him said "Come on, Reindeer Games." The shoes turned and walked towards the tower's roof entrance. Feeling it was best not to make things worse, Loki rose and followed him silently, like a shadow. He followed the man down some staircases before they took an elevator, ending up in the living quarters of Tony's living quarters. Loki saw the window he'd thrown Tony out of had been repaired, and he winced. Undoubtedly he'd pay for that soon.

He wondered why his master would want to beat him in his living quarters. It would undoubtedly get messy. Perhaps he'd be made to clean up his own blood after his beating? Such a thing wasn't unheard of in Asgard. His stomach twisted at the thought, and he wasn't even sure he'd be able to move after his impending punishment.

Tony spun around suddenly, and Loki flinched. The man walked up to him, grabbed his chin to enforce eye contact. The metal gloves were certainly unpleasant, but at least they weren't punching him. Yet. Tony said, voice dangerously low "All right, Rudolph. Here's the deal. When I tell you to do something, you _do_ it. Immediately." His eyes glinted, as if daring Loki to challenge him. " _Got it?_ "

Loki nodded. Tony didn't seem satisfied, so said "Yes" quietly. Tony stared him down a bit more, but finally let go of his chin. Loki resisted the urge to rub it as he he returned his gaze to the ground.

To his surprise, Tony held out his arms and the gloves unwrapped themselves and flew off to who knew where. Loki would have breathed a sigh of relief, but he wasn't sure if Tony was just coming up with a more creative punishment for him.

Tony sauntered over to a very well stocked bar in one part of the living room. He grabbed about three bottles and a glass. "Keep an eye on him, Jarvis," He said to nobody in particular "Make sure he doesn't go anywhere or touch anything he shouldn't. Feel free to tase him if he tries anything."

The disembodied voice of Stark's AI creation said "Very well, sir. Should I give Mr. Laufeyson a taste of what will happen should he try something?" Tony considered this briefly, but eventually he said "Nah. The threat should be enough to keep him in line." Smirking at Loki, he added "See you later, Princess" and left through the elevator.

Loki stood there for a bit, at a loss of what to do.

XXXXX

Tony drowned another glass of alcohol and grabbed a bottle, refilling it. He definitely deserved a drink (though it didn't take much for him to decide he deserved some alcohol). Tony was currently in his workshop, swiveling on a chair. He had tried tinkering a bit, but eventually kicked back with a drink, watching Loki through JARVIS' security system. He could have locked the god up in a room, but he wanted to see if the god would listen to his orders while he wasn't there.

So far, Loki had just wandered through the rooms, eyes taking note of everything. A couple times, he'd try to open a door he shouldn't (like to Tony's bedroom) and JARVIS would politely inform him that that area was off limits. Tony noticed that he returned to the kitchen far more often than the other rooms. It suddenly occurred to Tony that he had no idea when his charge had last eaten.

"JARVIS, order a pizza." He said eyes not leaving the screen. It was odd how watching the god could be so interesting. Loki didn't touch anything, but his gaze kept lingering over the bookshelf. Tony figured he must be bored out of his mind, and debated whether he should let him continue to be bored. After a while, he decided maybe he should give the god something to do. That way if he was hatching any plans or anything his mind would be occupied on something else.

He debated about making him do some mindless chore, but a better idea came to him. His charge clearly wanted to read. So he'd let him read.

"Tell our guest he can read the red book on the bottom left shelf." Tony said, after a "certainly, sir" he heard JARVIS relay the message to Loki.

Loki's eyes glinted with anticipation as he made his way over to the bookshelf. Tony burst out laughing at the look on the god's face as he read the title of the obviously self-published book, _The Awesomeness of Tony Stark_.

 **Hopefully I can update again soon**


	3. Chapter 3

**So it took three days instead of two to update this time. But this chapter is over twice as long as last chapter- this one's 3,000 words. So that's good. This is by far my favorite chapter so far.**

It's the stupidest book he's ever seen. Clearly an ego boost on Tony's part. His lip curls in distaste at the picture of Stark on the cover, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, seeming to look directly into Loki's soul. Loki continues squatting in front of the bookshelf for a bit, simply staring at the cover in disbelief. Eventually, he settles down on the floor in front of the bookshelf- a slave using his master's furniture was asking for trouble- and opens the cover. Who knows? This could be entertaining, in a sickening sort of way.

" _Tony Stark is perhaps the awesomest man to ever exist._ " Loki feels the urge to puke at the first sentence. He keeps reading, though, because it beats wandering around the same rooms for the hundredth time. Plus, Tony could have been disguising a command when he let him read it. The man already had more than enough things to be angry at Loki about, Loki decides it's best not to risk angering him more by not obeying a potential command. After all, he still doesn't know how Tony is going to punish him.

Loki's opinion of the book drops considerably as he keeps reading. Who _wrote_ this garbage anyways? Several words are misspelled, and the author clearly has no sort of talent with the written word. He briefly wonders if Tony had written it himself, but he has no way of knowing since there is no author listed. He flips forward several pages, wondering if the entire book was a poorly written brag-fest, and reads " _In addition to his genius IQ, Tony is quite the charismatic guy, able to win anybody over with his charm and good looks._ " Loki almost laughs at that. _He_ certainly hadn't been won over. Though even he can't claim that Tony is _ugly_.

His mind starts to drift as the book went on and on, repeating the same things in different ways. So far he was really surprised with how things have turned out. He hasn't been beaten to a pulp yet, and he would have bet anything that Tony was going to start right away. After all, the man hates him. Why wouldn't he start beating him up immediately, especially when Loki wasn't allowed to defend himself? It seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Or maybe he was waiting until Loki wouldn't expect it. Or he could be trying to decide how to inflict the most pain. The thought doesn't sit well with Loki, so he forces himself to focus on the book to try to distract himself from thinking about it, and to ignore his growling stomach (he doesn't know when the last time he ate was).

He reaches a section about Tony's... exploits... in bed, and quickly flips forward about twenty pages. That really isn't something he wants to know about the man. Glancing at the new page, he sees it's about Stark Industries' generous donations to many causes. Loki has little knowledge of Midgardian currency, but the way the book carries on, the company had probably donated a lot. Even with his limited knowledge on Midgardian culture, Loki can tell Tony was extremely wealthy by Midgardian standards.

At least this part isn't directly bragging about Tony, which was a bit more bearable. He supposed he should be glad he was allowed to relax and read a book, even if it wasn't a good one. Tony could have put him to work, or simply beat him senseless instead.

Loki is almost done with the book by the time the sun starts to set. It's getting hard to read the pages, and he's not sure how the artificial lights work. Or even if he's allowed to use them. So he sits there, alone with his thoughts. Though it doesn't last long.

* * *

"Hey, Rock of Ages. Dinner's here." Tony says, voice slurring just the tiniest bit from the scotch as he steps out of the elevator, and Loki wonders why the man calls him all these weird names. It's probably some bizarre Midgardian custom he's not used to, since they don't make any sense to the god.

Tony is carrying a couple large, flat, square-shaped boxes. He looks over at Loki, as if expecting something, and says "Well, aren't you coming?"

Loki puts the book back in its place on the shelf and follows. Unlike letting him read the book, Loki is pretty certain that was a disguised order. He follows his master to the table and watches as he spreads the boxes out on the surface. He hangs back, wondering what's expected of him.

Tony walks over to a cupboard and grabs two plates, before setting them in opposite places. Perhaps he's having a guest over, Loki thinks absently. Tony shoots him a look that says he's doing something wrong, and after a bit of confusion, he realizes why. Of course. Tony is annoyed that he had to set the table. After all, his slave should have done it without being told. The idea of a slave standing around while his master worked was laughable, yet Loki had done just that. Loki stands there nervously as he wonders what his punishment for this is going to be. He already has quite a bit of punishments he hasn't received yet, and the list is growing at an alarming rate.

"Are you waiting for a personalized invitation or something?" Tony quips from his seat, still giving him that look as if he's doing something wrong. "I don't know. Something like ' _I humbly request your presence, O Great Prince, and would be most honored if you would acquiesce to dine with me this evening._ ' You're probably used to that kind of stuff back in god fairyland, I bet. I guess I could have JARVIS print an invitation out for you, but that's usually a bit over the top here. So just sit down, okay?"

Loki is beyond confused. In Asgard, slaves either stand behind their masters or kneel next to them, ready to serve them at any time. He figures that's what Tony meant and had just said it very strangely. He goes and stands behind Tony's chair, eyes focused on the ground. He hopes that's good enough, and that Tony won't add yet another punishment to be dished out later for the delay. He's not about to kneel in the man's presence unless specifically told to do so. His pride had already suffered enough when he'd had to do it earlier that day.

It takes him about five seconds to realize Tony is still staring at him incredulously. What was he doing wrong _now_? His heart races as he tries to figure it out. Maybe Tony _was_ expecting him to kneel by his seat, and had just assumed he'd know that. A small part of Loki starts telling him to suck up his pride and just kneel in the hopes that Tony won't add yet another punishment, but he stubbornly remains standing. Even if his punishment will be worse later, he holds himself to his decision that he will not kneel before this mortal unless commanded to do so.

"What are you doing?" Tony asks him, even though Loki thinks it's pretty obvious he's standing there. He can't think of an explanation he'd want to admit out loud, so he says nothing. "You see that chair over there? Go sit in it."

Tony points to the chair with the other plate on it, and Loki looks at him like he's sprouted a second head. A slave sitting with his master like they're equals? The absurdity of it would have sent any Asgardian into hysterics. If he hadn't been personally involved in this situation (and on the lower end to boot) he would have found it quite amusing. Tony must be joking.

After Loki doesn't move for another couple seconds, Tony repeats himself sounding somewhat annoyed. Loki realizes with shock that Tony is being serious. Warily, he seats himself in the indicated spot. Loki eyes the other man suspiciously- he half expects Tony to have set him up in this situation of acting improperly just so he could punish him for it. However, Tony looks almost... _satisfied_.

"Right. So, we have pizza." Tony said as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred in the past couple minutes. "I don't know what you all do back where you're from, if you just cut open a pig and eat it or something, but that's not what we do here." He gestures to the boxes, asking "Cheese or pepperoni?"

Loki is even more confused than he was before, something he didn't think possible. Is he actually being offered a choice? Back in the dungeons, he'd had that disguising gruel shoved in his mouth, and slaves only fared a little better. They were certainly never offered a choice of what to eat. But Tony doesn't appear to know this, seeing as he's looking at him expectantly, and it's not like Loki's going to correct him. He has no idea what "pepperoni" is, so he picks cheese.

Tony pushes one of the boxes towards him, and Loki pokes it curiously. On it are the words "Papa John's." Tony's prattling on, something about how he didn't feel like getting gourmet pizza, but he stops when Loki picks up the box, turning it around curiously. It certainly doesn't look appetizing (nor did it resemble cheese in the slightest) but Loki really couldn't have expected to get something remotely appetizing. Not in his current... situation.

He finds it hard to believe he once enjoyed eating. The past three months (which felt more like three years) have ruined it for him. He doubts he ever will again, if this is the stuff he's going to be given. Hoping it tastes better than it looks, Loki is about to take a bit when he glances at the man across from him.

Tony's giving him that _you're-doing-something-wrong_ look again, only this time he looks like he's about to burst out laughing, which, soon enough, he does. Loki stares at the cackling Tony. Maybe he's just laughing about how his slave is going to be eating disgusting food? That would make sense. But then Loki's gaze shifts from Tony to the table.

The other box- the "pepperoni" one, Loki remembers- is lying next to Tony's plate. It's open, and inside is a large circular piece of bread covered in yellow cheesy stuff and weird round slices of some meat-like stuff. It's cut into triangular slices, and one of them is on Tony's plate, partially eaten.

Loki feels like an idiot. Open closer inspection, he notices the words "open here" on the side of the box. He opens it and sees a similar thing to what's in Tony's box, only without all the weird round things on it. The pepperoni stuff Tony's eating is probably better, because it was just a common fact that the master eats better food than the slave, but he doesn't think about it. Cautiously, he takes a bite.

* * *

Tony's laughter at Loki almost eating the pizza box finally dies down. "You kill me, Bambi." He says once he's able to speak again. "Did you record that, JARVIS?" He asks. "Of course, sir. Would you like me to take screenshots of the highlights?"

"Yeah, sure." Tony says casually, turning his attention back to the god. Loki is pretending to not notice this exchange. "Why, are you _blushing_ , Bambi?" Tony asks, unable to resist teasing the god. Loki's not blushing, but Tony wants to see if he can make him.

Loki looks like he had some retorts lined up for this, but Tony is surprised when he doesn't voice any of them, instead taking another bite of his pizza. "You _are_ blushing" Tony says in mock glee. Loki gives him a death glare that says all too clearly that he'd like nothing more than to use is magic to rip out Tony's stomach or something equally gruesome. Fortunately for Tony, Loki can't act on this since his magic is blocked.

"Okay. Okay." Tony holds up his hands "You're obviously not the blushing type. Which is too bad, because that would have been really fun. It would have made for some great photo ops, don't you think? Besides, it would probably help your complexion, seeing as you're ridiculously pale. Kind of like those vampires in the stuff teenage girls go wild over. " He pauses for a second, looking at Loki, and then asks " _Are_ you a vampire?"

Loki realizes Tony's expecting him to respond. "No. I am not a vampire. You do not need to fear me sucking out your blood." He clips out curtly. Tony looks disappointed for some reason. "Oh. That's too bad. Well, not the part about you not sucking my blood. That part's good! I don't want that. But I could totally see you as a vampire. You'd probably get a lot of love-struck fans." He laughs at Loki's face as the god processes this and continues.

"Even without being a vampire you'd probably get a lot. Well, you would if you weren't completely bonkers, that is. Actually, some people dig that, come to think of it. You could probably get a pretty big fan base, you know." He feels the need to add "Not nearly as big as mine, of course, but..."

Loki's silver tongue seems to have turned to lead, and he seems unable to think of a reply. "Eh, the fewer people who know you're here, the better." Tony dismisses the idea with a wave of his hand.

"So how'd you like the book I picked out for you?" Tony asks, trying not to grin. "Did it make you think of me a bit differently?" Loki cautiously replies "It was... interesting." He notices the god has finished his slice of pizza and is looking at the box hungrily, though it's clear he's trying to hide it. Tony looks at him. "You can help yourself, you know."

The god almost succeeds at hiding his eagerness as he gets two more slices, but not quite. Tony quirks an eyebrow and says "You really like pizza, huh?" Loki pauses, having already eaten half a slice, his appetite greatly resembling Thor's. "It is tolerable." He says after a bit, and Tony wonders why he seems to think nothing in Midgard is worth his approval (or at least nothing is worth him showing his approval).

Now that Tony's told him he can eat as much as he wants, Loki is eating almost ravenously. Tony frowns at this, and asks "When did you last eat?" Loki freezes, pizza dangling out of his mouth. He has a deer-in-the-headlights look, and it's clear he's trying to figure out how he's supposed to answer. Tony notes that Loki's skills at deceit and deception have dropped drastically these past three months, since it's pretty obvious what's going through his head.

"It's not a hard question, Rudolph" Tony says, sounding slightly more serious than usual "When was your last meal?" Eyes downcast, Loki murmurs "I don't know" Tony certainly isn't the most socially graceful person by any stretch, but he can tell Loki doesn't want to talk about it. For now, he drops the subject. Filing this information away to bring up sometime else, he pushes the box of pepperoni pizza across the table so it's next to the cheese and says "Help yourself."

* * *

Loki eats about three quarters of the cheese pizza and a slice or two of the remaining pepperoni pizza before he stops. Considering he hasn't eaten much lately, that isn't a whole lot. He wonders if his stomach shrunk while he was in the dungeon. He wants to eat more since he doesn't know when he'll be fed again, but he is so stuffed that he literally couldn't take another bite. He went days without food in the dungeons, and Tony could decide at any time that he's wasting too much food on his slave.

Tony asks if he's done, and when he says he is, the boxes are closed again and shoved in something Tony says is called a refrigerator. Tony doesn't seem annoyed about being the one putting the stuff away. Actually, after their initial encounter, Tony has been surprisingly nice, at least compared to what Loki had expected- not that that's saying much though. Loki wonders if it's the scotch. Maybe Tony actually gets nicer when he's a bit drunk. Or maybe he just has no clue how slaves are usually treated.

When he's done, Tony says "I guess I'll show you to your room, Reindeer Games." He beckons for Loki to follow. They go down a hallway and Tony stops outside a door. He pushes it open and says "It's probably not anything like you had back in your castle but I'm sure you'll cope."

Loki walks in the room, hardly daring to believe it. Sure it's nothing like his chambers in the castle, but it's infinitely better than he'd hoped for. At the very least he'd expected to be locked up in a cell, and he would have considered himself lucky if it was a clean one. But he had thought it was more realistic to expect to be locked up in a dungeon-like area, possibly chained there like in the dungeons in Asgard.

But this room is actually pretty nice, he thinks. There is a queen-size bed, a large dresser, a nightstand and a desk. It even has a private bathroom with a shower. Tony is leaning against the doorframe, watching him. "Well, I hope it's up to your princely standards. I'd rest if I were you. I've got some stuff for you to do tomorrow." He didn't say what the stuff was, though. Loki, after much internal debate, dared to ask him what he was referring to.

"Oh, you know. This and that. That sort of stuff" Tony says almost too casually. Loki doesn't know, but it's clear Tony's not going to answer. Neither one says anything until Tony turns to leave. "By the way, I'm going to be locking you in here in the nights. At least until I know you won't try anything foolish." The door closes and the lock clicks. Loki doesn't even bother testing to see if he can open it. Why would Tony lie about the lock?

Instead, he shuts out the light and lays down on the bed. Overall, today had been infinitely better than he'd expected. Despite this, he slept poorly, as his mind came up with all the unpleasant "stuff" Tony is going to have him do tomorrow.

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed and I hope to update again soon. Hopefully I wasn't the only one who liked the conversation about fans.**

 **I also found out writing this chapter that I like writing this story in the present tense I've always wanted to try writing one in present tense anyways. I changed the first two chapters from past to present on my computer, but I'm not entirely sure I like how the first two are in present tense so I'm leaving them in past tense on the site for now. Does anyone mind this story switching tense like that?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the longer update time. I really don't have an excuse. Anyways, thanks to everyone who followed or favorited this.**

Tony wakes up when Jarvis, as always, acts as his alarm clock, rattling off the weather and notable news. He lays there listening, and doesn't really remember the events from yesterday until Jarvis asks if he´d like an update on his... guest. That´s a good word for it, he thinks, seeing as he´s not at all comfortable with the word _slave_ and he doubts Loki is either. He remembers that last night, perhaps due to his slight drunkenness, Loki had basically been treated as a dinner guest. Which is pretty weird to think about, since he certainly doesn't like Loki.

Not bothering to make the bed, he takes a relaxing shower and puts on a t-shirt and sweatpants. After leaving his room and entering the kitchen, he debates what to do with Loki. Should he leave him in his room for a while or call him out?

"Jarvis, what's our guest up to?" Tony asks. "Mr. Laufeyson is currently in the shower, sir." Comes the reply in a fake British accent. "Well, tell him to come out here when he's done."

He starts making coffee, and rummages through the cupboards while he's waiting for it to finish. He fishes out a couple boxes of cereal, as well as some instant oatmeal that has been sitting around in the back of the cabinet for a while since he doesn't like it. Maybe Loki will. Depositing these on the table, he gets out two bowls and two spoons and sets them in the same places they'd sat in last night.

His coffee is finally done and he drinks it contentedly, leaning back against the counter. After about five minutes, his solitude is gone.

Loki arrives at the doorway silently, and Tony studies him as he drinks his coffee. He's wearing the same leather clothes as yesterday. They're simple and plain by Asgardian standards, but they're a little over the top for casual clothes here. _Oh well_ , Tony thinks. It's not like it really matters. They haven't started smelling or anything.

"Did you sleep well, princess?" Tony asks with a smirk. The god looks slightly less tired than he did yesterday, and he answers, after a bit "My rest was satisfactory." He sounds like he's trying to find the right answer to a pretty simple question.

"Glad to hear it," Tony replies, not entirely sincere. "Well, we've got breakfast here so take a seat." Loki does so a lot quicker than yesterday. Tony sits down across from him and shoves one of the oatmeal packets at him. "Here, try this. You might like it more than I do."

Loki looks at it blankly and Tony sighs and snatches it back, ripping it open and dumping the contents into Loki's bowl. He then adds the water and stirs it before placing it back in front of the god. The god just looks at it, and Tony asks in "Do I need to feed you?"

Loki hastily shakes his head in the negative, an action that contrasts greatly with his normal demeanor, and quickly picks up his spoon. Tony could've sworn he saw a flash of fear on the god's face, but it's gone in an instant. Tony can't claim to know him, but Loki seems like the type who isn't scared of much. Maybe he just imagined it. After all, why would a little jab like that scare anybody?

Tony continues watching the god. Loki clearly hesitates before putting the first bite in his mouth, and when he does, his expression is unreadable.

* * *

Loki had been really worried about facing sober Tony again, since his experience with sober Tony from yesterday was certainly worse than the slightly drunk Tony from last night. Slightly-drunk Tony had actually treated him as an equal and hadn't really seemed to hate him. The same couldn't be said for Sober-Tony.

When he'd woken up, it had taken him a bit to remember the events from yesterday. Once he had, worries filled his head. What if Tony decided that today would be a good day for a beating? He'd winced every time he'd accidentally upset one of his hidden injuries. But after getting out of the shower, he'd noticed that his reflection gave no sign of the pain he felt. It must've been part of the charm hiding the bruises, undoubtedly it was hiding any evidence of them through his actions, too.

As if worrying about being a human punching bag again wasn't enough, he still didn't know what the "stuff" he'd have to do that Tony had mentioned last night was.

Those worries have yet to be resolved as Loki is sitting at the table with Tony, which still seems odd to the god because slaves never sit at the same level as their masters. At least, not until now.

When Tony makes the crack about if he needs to feed him, Loki feels a fear he hopes isn't showing. That comment brings back the horrible memories of being force-fed in the dungeons.

Tony is doing one thing that makes sense, Loki thinks. He's giving Loki worse food than himself. Slaves in Asgard always eat the leftovers nobody else wants, and Tony clearly said he didn't like this oatmeal stuff Loki's eating. Loki's not too fond of it either, but it's better than the gruel that had been shoved down his throat in the dungeons, even though it looks similar.

Tony is eating toast and rambling on about something to do with coffee that Loki's not really listening to. He wonders if Tony has him sit at the table just so he has someone to talk at. The man seems to never shut up.

Loki eats his breakfast pretty slowly and he finishes well after Tony. He's still not exactly comfortable with this food that reminds him of the dungeon gruel. Tony asks if he wants more. Although he's still very hungry, he declines, knowing that masters are displeased when kept waiting by their slaves, and the slaves usually bear the brunt of their masters' displeasure.

Finally, Tony brings up what Loki's been dreading. The "stuff" he is supposed to do today. Loki's mind had treated him to all sorts of horrible possibilities, and he apprehensively watches as Tony gets up, clearly about to show him what he's going to do today.

* * *

Tony tries to hide a grin as he walks across the kitchen. Ever since last night, he's been debating about what to do with the god. Or, more correctly, what to have the god do. Having him sit around all day isn't a great idea, but he really hadn't had any other ideas yesterday. It would be much better if Loki was doing something useful.

"Come here," He says once he reaches the sink. Loki obeys quickly, but obviously reluctantly. Tony waits a couple seconds until they are a couple feet apart before opening the dishwasher and letting the door swing down.

"I forgot to run this thing last night," Tony starts, gesturing to the dishwasher just in case it isn't obvious that's what he's referring to. Okay, he hadn't really forgotten, he'd planned it, but still. Actually, he hadn't run it in at least a week, and there were a lot of dishes inside.

"So," he continues brightly "You're going to wash these. By hand. I'm guessing you never had to lift your royal rear out a chair to work back in fairyland. But this could be really good for you, you know. I hear it's supposed to be relaxing. I'm not sure I buy that but, hey, you'll find out for us, won't you, Reindeer Games?" Loki's giving him a scathing look, but Tony ignores it. He blocks the drain in the sink and starts filling it up with water. After adding soap, he flings a sponge at the god's face. Loki snatches it out of the air, his glare never leaving Tony.

"Well, go ahead. Knock yourself out." Tony goes to clap Loki on the shoulder as he leaves, but the god evades it.

Tony doesn't notice the trace of fear on the god's face, and he goes and kicks back on the couch with a holographic datapad.

* * *

Loki is seething at the injustice. It's an outrage that he, a _god,_ is being made to do a menial chore for a pathetic mortal. He's been expecting it ever since he arrived here, but now that he actually has to _do_ it, it seems a lot worse. Besides, Tony has that machine thing the dishes are already in to wash them, so Loki feels as if he's been lowered to the level of the dishwasher. If he'd had his magic, he could've finished in a second, but of course his magic is blocked. He eyes the dishes with a glare that would have surely had them begging for mercy if they were real. He notices a fair number of them are scotch glasses.

Loki had briefly entertained the idea of refusing to do this task, but he isn't stupid. Refusing to do what's commanded of him is basically suicide in his new... position. Not kneeling immediately yesterday had been bad enough, but refusing to do this would certainly be a far greater crime. He rolls up his sleeves and looks at the magnitude of things to wash.

Scowling, he grabs a glass and plunges it into the soapy water. He rubs it furiously with the sponge. His anger about this task grows with each movement, until he loses it and hits the countertop. There´s a shattering sound, and he´s suddenly aware that he is holding the now-broken glass in the hand he´d just hit the counter with.

He freezes. This is bad. Really bad. He just broke his master's property. Even though it´s only one glass out of dozens, Tony could punish him as harshly as he wanted and Loki couldn't do a single thing about it. His anger at the task now turns to himself. How could he have been so _stupid_? Even as he mentally berates himself, the angry part of Loki is urging him to just smash every dish possible to show his _master_ how he feels. But he doesn't. Despite his anger, he knows that although it would feel really good at the moment, the consequences are far too severe. He's already facing who knows what for accidentally breaking one glass, plus all the wrongdoings from before. He doesn't want to know what the punishment for purposely breaking his master's property would be.

He has no idea what to do. Should he hide the evidence? That could make it worse later- he doesn't know how Tony would react to finding out his slave hiding trying to evade punishment. He picks up the broken pieces, carful not to add to his collection of hidden injuries. He nicks himself once and the new injury shows.

"What are you doing?" Comes a voice from behind him. Loki whirls around, dropping the pieces to the ground, making them shatter into even smaller pieces. Tony is standing in the doorway with his arms crossed across his chest. It's making Loki very, very nervous.

"The glass broke," Loki says quietly, torn between trying to gauge the man's reaction and staring at the ground like most masters expect of their slaves. He opts for the former since Tony doesn't seemed to care if he's looked at or not, and Tony is giving him a look that clearly says " _Well, DUH!_ "

"Accidentally" Loki quickly adds. It was technically true- he hadn't meant to break it, even though he had smashed it on the counter. Even if it hadn't been true, he could have easily lied about it- after all, he _was_ the lie-smith.

Tony continues staring at him, and Loki actually starts sweating with nervousness. He'll consider himself lucky if he doesn't fall on the broken glass when Tony starts beating him.

Despite being a god himself and knowing it's not true, Loki briefly wonders if there is some supreme being looking out for him. Tony just says "Try not to break my stuff, okay?" before handing him a dustpan and broom and ordering him to clean up the broken glass before finishing with the dishes.

A couple hours later Loki's finally finished with all the dishes. Tony hasn't given him anything else to do, so he heads back to his room, wanting to keep a safe distance from the man. He lays down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, and wonders why everything has been so different from what he expects. Tony has had ample opportunity to beat him, and yet he hasn't. Even with the broken glass incident, when any master would have viewed beating their slave as a mild punishment for such an offense. It's clear the man is (justly) furious about everything he did on Midgard, but he's barely released any of that fury on him, aside from making him kneel the day before.

Maybe, Loki thinks once again, Tony's just waiting until Loki thinks he's safe from being beaten to start beating him. After all, Tony had to beat him at some point. Who wouldn't take advantage of a defenseless enemy who'd brought so much grief to their world?

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed it. Not sure when my next update will be. I have final exams next week :(**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to my first reviewer, though I can't give a shoutout because they were a guest. Thanks for wishing me luck on my finals. Tomorrow's my killer final day, with two finals including the one I'm most nervous about (Spanish 2). Writing this story helped me de-stress after studying though. Also, thanks to everyone who read, followed or favorited this story.**

Tony's been in denial about this whole thing up until now. For most of the time last night, he'd been slightly intoxicated, and this morning it still hadn't quite sunken in. Heck, after making him kneel, Tony had barely thought of the other man as _Loki_ , the god who tried to conquer Midgard. His brain, either in denial or because of the scotch, had been thinking of him simply as someone he wasn't too fond of, but not his least favorite person to ever encounter. But now it's sinking in that he's going to be spending the rest of his life living in charge of his worst enemy.

His blood boils with rage; at this whole messed-up situation, at the Allfather for deciding this for him, and at Loki. Loki, who had killed innocent people without the slightest trace of remorse, who had thrown him out his own freaking window.

He glares at the god sitting across from him. Tony had left him in his room until lunch, but then called him out to eat. That had been half an hour ago. Tony finished in ten minutes, but Loki's barely eaten. He hasn't taken a bite out of his sandwich for at least five minutes, instead sitting very tensely and looking like he'd rather be back in his room.

 _Too bad, princess._ Tony thinks bitterly, although he's really not sure why he called him out in the first place. He could have just had the god eat in his room _._ Well, he's here now.

Another couple minutes go by, and Loki still doesn't make a move to eat. "Well, if you're not hungry there's no point in sitting here any longer." Tony stands up and grabs both their plates, putting his in the dishwasher and Loki's in the fridge. He then beckons Loki to follow him and goes into the living room. Kicking back on the sofa, he has to tell Loki to take a seat.

He feels he needs to have some sort of talk with his charge, even though he really doesn't want to. As much as he hates the god, what Loki said- or didn't say- last night about the food situations in the dungeons bothers him.

* * *

"What's _up_ with you?" Tony asks "Yesterday you ate almost an entire pizza and today you've hardly eaten anything."

Loki doesn't want to talk about it. The charm makes him look no different than the day he went back to Asgard three months ago, but he knows his body is really a lot thinner than it appears at the moment. He's astonished the pizza from last night fit in his shrunken stomach. Even if Loki hadn't been too nervous to eat during lunch, he doubts he could fit much more in there anyways. Clearly Tony's angry about something, and he just wants to get away before Tony decides to take that anger out on him.

"I am unaccustomed to your Midgardian cuisine." He says after a bit, hoping that answer will be acceptable.

But Tony's not buying it. "Judging by the way you almost ate the pizza box last night, I'd say you've never had pizza before but you seemed fine with that." Loki considers trying to claim it's just a food preference, but that would be proven wrong if he was offered pizza instead. As crazy as it seems, he has a feeling Tony would do just that.

"How often did they feed you?" Tony asks quietly.

"Tell me, do I look like I've lost any weight?" Loki dodges the question.

He figures that will throw Tony off, but to his surprise, Tony still seems suspicious. "You didn't answer my question, Rudolph."

"I hardly see why it's of any concern to you." Loki replies. He doesn't want Tony to find out how weak he'd been in the dungeons. He doesn't want anyone to know how he'd been brought so low that he would have begged for the disgusting gruel if he hadn't been muzzled. A prince, begging for something that the lowest of peasants would eat only as a last resort.

"Just answer the question." Tony says before adding something that, judging by the look on his face, surprises himself "Do you want me to make it an order?"

Loki glares at his master. "Fine." He spits out. "They fed me once or twice a day." This is a lie, of course, but Tony doesn't know that. It's pathetically easy for the God of Lies and Mischief to pull off, and he hopes it'll keep the man from knowing that he's without a doubt the stronger one of them now. Although even if he hadn't been extremely malnourished, it's not like Loki would be allowed to defend himself against his master, let alone attack him.

Only the lie doesn't work. "Really?" Tony says skeptically, leaning forwards. "Then how come last night you said you didn't know when you'd last eaten, Reindeer Games?"

Loki curses himself for the major slip he'd made in forgetting about that. He's usually three steps ahead of everyone else. He shouldn't be making stupid mistakes like that. He's furious at himself. Had he really just lost an argument to this mortal? He sees no way around telling the truth.

"I received 'food' no more than ten times." Loki furiously admits. Now Tony will surely use that information against him one way or another, perhaps withholding food to punish him.

"How the hell did you _survive_ that long?" Tony asks, giving him a shocked look.

"I am a god! I am far above your kind! Unlike you worthless mortals, I am not so easily defeated!" Loki shouts, enraged that he'd just been verbally defeated by the idiot sitting across from him.

"Actually," the inventor says "if I recall correctly, we defeated you three months ago. Which clearly means we're infinitely more awesome than you." Tony suddenly drops the snark, his voice becoming dangerous as he gets up and stares down at Loki. "And you are wrong. You are far _below_ us mortals now. But you don't seem to have grasped that yet, so I may have to pound it into your thick skull."

Loki realizes he's made a mistake, but of course it's too late now. It looks like his time has finally run out. Surely he's going to pay for everything now; for shouting at his master, for the broken glass. Even worse, he'll probably have to pay for the much larger crimes of trying to take over Midgard and throwing Tony out the window. He waits for the blows to come, but they don't.

"Wait here, and don't even _think_ about moving." Tony orders before leaving the room. Loki stays put, knowing better than to make things even worse for himself. He's not even sure he could walk if he wanted to. His legs feel ridiculously weak.

He knows some kind of beating is in his near future. Even though it is an obvious assumption, Tony had said it anyways. That he'd get his head pounded or something.

Loki suddenly realizes that what he'd said had been similar to his rant at the Hulk. He hopes his master isn't calling Banner to come smash him into the floor again. Loki's pretty sure he wouldn't survive it in his nearly-mortal body.

He's suddenly aware of just how helpless he is. He's completely at the mercy of his worst enemy, of his _master_. If Tony should decide to have the Hulk beat him into the floor, there is absolutely nothing he can do about it. Tony can even decide that the god is supposed to be quiet and punish him further for any noise he makes while being punished. Loki doubts he'll be able to hold in his screams. Only the muzzle had kept him silent in the dungeon.

He jumps when Tony suddenly re-enters the room. "Come," The man orders curtly. Loki notices Tony's not holding any weapons as he follows him as ordered. He's too nervous to pay attention to where they're going, but the walk is extremely short.

Loki is surprised when he is led to his bedroom. Although he supposes it makes sense. That way his blood would only be in his own room. Since Tony still doesn't have a weapon, Loki assumes he's going to be beaten with bare fists. Unless that's not what Tony brought him in for...

His gaze unwillingly strays to the bed and stomach jumps to his throat. _No. Not that. Anything but that._ He'd rather be flogged to death in the most brutal way possible. Of course, Tony is well within his rights to do whatever he wants with Loki and the god can't stop him, but he didn't think the man would actually decide to take advantage of him in that way...

"Sit down." Tony orders and Loki snaps back to the present. He looks around, confused. Tony indicates the desk chair. Loki doesn't like Tony standing a mere foot behind him. He feels far too vulnerable, but at least he's not on the bed.

Tony opens the desk drawer beside Loki and pulls out a pad of paper and a pen. Loki hears him writing something on the pad above his head, then Tony mutters to himself. "No, that's not right." Loki has no idea what's going on as he hears Tony scribble something out and start writing again.

Finally, he puts the paper down in front of Loki, who leans forward to read what he has written. _"Tony Stark is infinitely more awesome than I am, and I am deeply sorry for throwing him out of his own window. He and his fellow humans are not puny mortals, and I will treat them with the respect they deserve."_

Loki's lip curls in disgust. This is worse than that stupid book he'd been reading yesterday.

"So," Tony says, seeming far too happy with himself, "You're going to copy this. Two hundred and forty times. Oh, and make sure to number them." Loki scowls, since he's basically being forced to sing his master's praises. He can probably write that 40 or so times in an hour, but that's still six hours. Tony probably planned it to last until dinner, although Loki's not sure he'll get any.

As much as he despises the idea of writing that the man is more "awesome" than he is, he has to admit this punishment is greatly preferable to what he'd been expecting. Loki picks up the pen and begins, trying to ignore the man hovering over his shoulder. Tony watches him write the first five. Then he leaves, telling Loki not to get up unless told to do so and that Jarvis will be watching him the whole time.

By the bottom of the first page, Loki's not exactly paying attention to what he's writing. He messes up and hastily scribbles it out. He practically jumps out of his skin when the silence is broken by Jarvis' disembodied voice. "Mr. Stark would like to inform you that this is a warning. Should you make another mistake on a future page, you will have to restart it."

Loki growls in frustration. How had Jarvis even known he'd made a mistake? Could the AI read what he was writing? He starts the second page, and is forced to focus on writing each word of those two horrid sentences. He already has them memorized.

Once he reaches the twenty-eighth time, he swears this is going to be lodged is his brain forever, which he supposes is the point. But he still has to concentrate on copying it correctly and make sure he's writing that Tony is more awesome than he is and that he'll treat the man and all his fellow humans with respect.

He keeps writing, trying to ignore the fact he has to pee, which he'd started noticing around copy number twenty. Tony said he wasn't allowed to get up, so he tries to hold it. The task becomes even harder since he has to think about what he's writing, but his mind keeps informing him that he has to go. At one point, he just barely stops himself from accidentally writing that down.

Soon he is crossing and uncrossing his legs and wiggling around on his seat, anything to prevent him wetting his pants. He's not even bothering to write anymore, since his mind can't think about anything but the need to pee and he is solely focused on keeping it in.

To his relief, Jarvis informs him that he is allowed two minutes to go to the bathroom. But he hates the idea that Jarvis saw that. It means Tony can rewatch the god squirming around like a child who hasn't finished being toilet-trained any time he wants. But at least Tony didn't wait for him to wet his pants, he thinks as he sits down on the toilet and stretches out his cramped hand.

Far too soon he returns to the utter boredom of writing about how he'll respect humans. He freezes for a second, realizing that he had seriously just thought of them as _humans_ instead of _puny mortals_. Clearly this stupid punishment is working.

Although he still doesn't feel sorry for throwing Tony out the window.

* * *

 _Odin's face shows no trace of love or sympathy as Loki lets go._

 _Loki falls and the nothingness rushes up to swallow him. Soon the bifrost is a tiny stripe above him. Eventually he is completely and utterly alone in a void._

 _He has absolutely nothing but his thoughts to occupy him, and he'd rather have anything else. He's the monster parents scare their children with and he and Thor pretended to slay in their games as children. A filthy, worthless Jotun._

 _It explains everything. Why he was never loved, why it was never intended for the throne to be his. He screams well past the point where his voice gives out and he can no longer make a sound._

 _Suddenly he's no longer in the void, and is instead surrounded by Chitauri. "Do you accept the bargain, little Jotun?" Thanos asks. He's just been told that he can rule Midgard if he helps Thanos get the Tessarect. Ruling Midgard wouldn't get him anything. It would be about as impressive as a child claiming himself the ruler of his stuffed animals. He wants to rule Asgard, not some puny, insignificant mortal planet. He's not so desperate to rule that he'd be content with ruling pathetic mortals._

 _Suddenly, that's gone too. He's in a different place and Thanos is telling him that he needs to be taught obedience._

 _He's chained up. Red hot iron is pressed into his bare back. He screams and tries to get away but he can't move. There's a sickening laugh as the iron is then pressed into the front of his torso, and he can smell his own burnt flesh._

Loki sits bolt upright in bed, a shout leaving his lips. Drenched in sweat and shaking uncontrollably, he forgets where he is. For a moment, he thinks he's with Thanos. Then he thinks he's back in the dungeons. It takes a minute for him to even register the feeling of the bed underneath him, and then he finally remembers where he is.

But even when he remembers where he is, the memory still comes flooding back, unwelcome and unwanted.

 _"Have you reconsidered our deal?" Thanos asks, gazing at him, the broken, pathetic god, with contempt. Loki, suddenly realizing that he wants to rule Midgard, manages to croak out "I'll do it."_

To be honest, Loki isn't sure where the want to rule Midgard had come from. It was just... there one day. He can never remember a single reason he'd had for suddenly wanting such a thing, and he sometimes wonders if he ever truly desired it at all.

Maybe he'd been tricked into thinking he did when he became Thanos' puppet.

His experience with Thanos hadn't been as bad as the dungeons, but that was only because in the dungeons he'd been stuck with a fragile mortal body. He'd been viciously tortured during both experiences but at least his body had healed quicker when being tortured by the Chitauri.

Suddenly his door creaks open and Tony pokes his head in. Before the man can say anything, Loki snaps "Go away!" without thinking about how he's not supposed to give orders in his position. He doesn't want to be seen like this, a pathetic _weakling_.

To his surprise, Tony actually leaves him alone. Loki remains sitting up in bed. He's certainly not in any mood to sleep. The memories continue to haunt him throughout the rest of the night. Some deep part of him, one that he quickly silences, tells him that he might have made a mistake in sending Tony away. Not that he wants to spend time with the man by any stretch, or have the man see him like this, but he almost wishes he had company. If someone else was with him, he thinks, the memories wouldn't be able to haunt him as much.

 **Well I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll be able to update soon. I have a break coming up :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks for the reviews, follows, favorites and views- you all are the best! When I saw this story got 164 in one day, I was overjoyed. Then the traffic graphs stopped working and I thought everyone abandoned this.**

 **This starts out with yet another meal scene. I don't know why I have so many- I guess maybe I think it's when they'd interact the most. But some important stuff happens in it.**

 **Something really major happens near the end of this chapter, by the way.**

Now that Tony knows about Loki's food situation in the dungeon, it makes sense that he's barely eating. He's probably still stuffed from all that pizza two nights ago. That makes sense now, too. The god probably didn't know when he'd see food again, so he stuffed himself with pizza that first night in case he wouldn't be eating again for a while.

The idea makes Tony uncomfortable. Did Loki really think he was cruel enough to deny him a basic necessity like food? The thought that Loki thinks that low of him actually hurts a little. Although he guesses that makes sense, considering that was how the god had been treated before. Loki should be literally starving considering how little food he'd been given, but he doesn't look any different- certainly not emaciated. It doesn't make sense.

He lets Loki pick from a variety of breakfast options, feeling a tiny bit disappointed that the god gives the oatmeal packets a look of utter distaste. Clearly neither of them are going to eat that stuff willingly. Loki looks curiously at the cereal but ends up choosing one of the doughnuts Tony had gone out and gotten earlier that morning. Of course, the god unknowingly picks the last of Tony's favorite kind of doughnut- chocolate.

Tony is about to (rather selfishly) tell the god he can't have that one, but he stops himself. Instead, he quickly intercepts the doughnut and cuts a small piece off, handing it to Loki. This way the god's saliva won't affect the entire doughnut and he can eat what Loki doesn't finish. There. Nobody can say he doesn't compromise.

The not-quite-concealed look on Loki's face makes Tony feel awful; the god is clearly wondering if that's all he's getting. "Just eat it in small pieces, okay? You can have as many as you want."

Loki takes a bite and his eyes widen before he closes them, chewing slowly. Tony swears the god almost seems happy; he's not sure, but he think's he sees the faintest trace of a smile on his face. Smirking, Tony says "Clearly not all Midgardian food is below you, huh, Reindeer Games?" Loki doesn't even deny liking it, and there is actually a small smile on his lips as he swallows. Figures it would be doughnuts that would win him over to Midgardian food.

"Listen," Tony says seriously, and the god eyes him warily. "You don't have to worry about not getting food here. So don't over stuff yourself, okay?"

"Why?" Loki asks quietly, and Tony realizes he's asking about the first part of what he'd just said.

 _Because starving people is torture_ , Tony thinks. Unfortunately, this thought brings his torture in Afghanistan to the front of his mind and he winces. He'd been reminded of it last night, too, when Jarvis woke him up to inform him Loki was having a nightmare. Tony, of course, has had more than his fair share of experience with nightmares. He knows all too well what it's like waking up from reliving hell and wondering for a second if he's back in the cave.

After a bit, these thoughts mercifully recede. Loki is looking at him with a curious but calculating look, which Tony is returning. He has no idea what Loki had been dreaming about last night, but it had to have been horrible. Part of him debates bringing it up, but he decides against it for now. He doesn't want to talk with Loki about his own experiences, and he knows the god would pick up on how it's a personal topic for him, too.

Tony finally answers Loki's question. "Because everybody needs to eat. So unless you _really_ piss me off, I'm not going to withhold food from you. If you ever _do_ do something to merit that, I'll probably just send you to bed without supper, like they always do to kids in those old stories."

Loki looks so _relieved_ and Tony once again feels slightly hurt that anyone thought him horrible enough to do starve someone.

"You done?" Tony asks, since Loki had barely seemed able to finish that small piece. Loki nods, and Tony immediately takes a humongous bite out of the rest of the doughnut, cramming almost half of it into his mouth. This earns him a startled and disgusted look from the god.

"What?" He asks with his mouth still stuffed, accidentally spewing some crumbs while he's at it. Loki now looks utterly revolted now and it's hilarious. Once he can speak somewhat clearly, Tony elaborates "It's my favorite type of doughnut."

Once he's done, Tony puts both their plates in the dishwasher, and is surprised when Loki asks "Aren't you going to have me wash them again?" The god actually sounds disinterested, though that tone could easily be a ruse.

"Nah, I've got something else for you to do. Well, two things actually." Tony replies. Sadly, he has a meeting that he can't get out of (not that he didn't try) and he has to make sure Loki stays busy while he's out. He tells Loki this as he beckons for the god to follow him and leads him out to the living room.

"First," Tony says, unsuccessfully hiding his grin as he walks over to the bookshelf and pulls out _The Awesomeness of Tony Stark_ , "You're going to write a new chapter for this."

The look on Loki's face is probably the best expression he's ever seen on a face. It far surpasses the expressions he'd had when he'd first seen the book two days ago, or when he'd read the sentences he'd been made to copy last night. In fact, Tony would have paid a good deal of money to see this expression. Luckily he gets it for free, and he has no doubt Jarvis recorded it.

"I'll be reading what you write when I get back, so make sure it's good. Oh, just use the pad and pen in your desk." He says, before moving on to the second task "Now, if you finish that, you can start alphabetizing my DVDs." To be honest, that part is just something that came to him that morning. He doesn't really care if his DVDs are alphabetized, but it seems like a good idea for a tedious, mind-numbing chore.

Loki clearly has no clue what a DVD is, so Tony points to his massive collection of hundreds and hundreds of DVDs. Tony basically owns any movie in any genre anyone can think of- action, comedy, animated, horror, even porn- and he's fairly certain he hasn't watched the majority of the movies yet.

"Right, so, I'll leave you to it. Jarvis will be watching you while I'm out, by the way." Tony says to a rather annoyed looking Loki. He makes sure to add "Feel free to eat anything in the kitchen if you get hungry."

Then he goes down to his workshop to pass the time before his stupid meeting.

* * *

Leave it to Stark to keep making him do more and more humiliating things, Loki thinks angrily. He'd thought reading about the man's greatness was bad before he'd had to copy sentences about it. Both of those pale to having to come up with original material singing this man's praises. Loki wonders if the man had been planning this the whole time.

He stalks to his room and sits down at his desk. After flipping to a new page on the pad of paper, he stares at it blankly. What is he supposed to write?

He _knows_ that Tony's laughing about this wherever he is. The thought annoys him to no end. Furiously, he grabs the pen and starts to write.

" _Tony Stark is supposedly a genius among his kind. Yet he wastes all that supposed intellect on primitive Midgardian science to try to make himself brawny, which he is not in real life. The Iron Man suit would not be remotely impressive on Asgard, yet on Midgard it is held in far too much esteem. He has absolutely no knowledge of the finer arts or sciences that Midgard takes for granted._

 _He drinks way too much scotch and never shuts up, although nobody cares what he's talking about. He is far too arrogant, as evidenced by the fact he had a book written about how awesome he is."_

Loki pauses. Clearly, that won't work, although it felt good to write. He tears it out, crumples it up and throws it to the corner of the desk. Then he looks at the blank page that had been under it and starts something else, trying to phrase everything positively.

 _"Tony Stark is obviously very wealthy for a human. He has more than enough rooms and food to spare, which he does. Even for people he hates._

 _He's a far better master than any in Asgard."_

Loki stares at this, almost not believing he wrote it. He then furiously writes _"I HATE TONY STARK!"_ in large letters over the other words.

He tears this out and scribbles madly over the entire thing before ripping it up. Then he realizes a way to get rid of the evidence and he flushes both sheets down the toilet.

He suddenly remembers when Jarvis had commented on him crossing out a mistake yesterday. He hopes the AI didn't see those two pages. Tony had even said Jarvis would be watching him, and he'd just let his emotions out anyways. He can't believe how stupid he's been these past couple days. Jarvis hasn't said anything, so maybe the AI didn't see what he wrote.

Sighing, Loki realizes he'd better start the actual task, but he has no idea what to write. He almost wishes Tony had made him copy lines again or something. At least then he wouldn't be stuck like this, wondering what he's supposed to do. He knows whatever he writes has to make Tony happy. No matter what, there's always the risk Tony will decide he hates whatever Loki writes and have him punished for it.

The rest of the book is really just page after page of mindless praise. He supposes he'll follow that nauseating model.

 _"Everybody seems to like him. No they adore him. He has so many people flinging themselves at him and he probably doesn't even know what it's like to be disliked."_ This is actually easier than he'd thought, which horrifies him. _"Everyone calls him a hero, just because he has some stupid hammer..."_ Loki stops, realizing what he's writing. Had he really been unconsciously writing about _Thor_? Looking at it, he realizes he definitely had been writing about him, and about all the things Thor took for granted that he himself never had. He's about to rip this up too, but pauses. Except for the hammer part, it could actually fit both Thor and Tony. He crosses out that bit and continues.

After two pages, this runs out of steam. He's assuming that the chapter has to be longer than that, but he's out of ideas. Maybe the book will help.

He flips through the book, but nothing really inspires him. Why would it, really? He sighs but continues writing.

Some parts end up almost identical to the book, such as " _He also invented J.A.R.V.I.S (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System), which is the most advanced AI in the world. No other AI even comes close. J.A.R.V.I.S could be the lord of all Artificial Intelligence."_ It's all drivel, but he hopes it will do the trick. He also hopes Tony either won't notice or won't mind how similar it is to the book, and that Jarvis isn't watching.

In three hours he has a good eight pages of the garbage, so he moves on to the other task assigned to him. He stares at the collection of these "DVD" things. He's not sure what they do, but they're all plastic things about the size of a thin book, though they come in two different sizes. Some are slightly smaller and have a blue spine with _Blu-ray_ written on them. Most of them have odd names, like _Breaking Bad_ or _Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_.

He pulls out the Harry Potter one and studies it. On the front is a picture of three children who look to be around twelve years old. One has black hair, glasses and a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. There's also a redhead boy and a brown-haired girl. The back says something about it being Harry's second year at some magical school and terrible things happening at said school. There are a couple of pictures on the back, too. He notices the case opens, but all that's inside is some weird disc.

These DVDs look vastly inferior to books, in Loki's opinion.

He puts the case back and starts scanning the spines for titles beginning with the letter _A_ , pulling each off the shelf when he spots it. One of them, _Avatar_ , has some kind of blue-skinned alien which reminds Loki uncomfortably of his true form.

Once he has all the _A_ movies, he starts to pile them alphabetically. The Avatar movie comes last, and he tries not to look at the blue face on the cover.

Loki keeps going for one hour, then two. Most of the cases have pictures of real people on them, but there are some that stand out because they have drawings, or something that seems in between drawings and photography. Most of these have _Walt Disney_ or _Disney/Pixar_ somewhere on the case, though there are some that say _DreamWorks_. There's a fair number of non-real ones, probably 60 or 70, though that's minuscule compared to the overall number of DVDs.

To be honest, this is actually one of the least mind-numbing tasks he's been given. At least he has something different to look at with each DVD case, whereas the dishes were all plain and boring.

Suddenly he's in agony. He feels warm liquid on various parts of his body, and he realizes it's blood. The charm hiding his injuries has worn off, all at once. It had stopped his bleeding, since it would have been odd for a body that looked uninjured to be leaking blood. It had also blocked a lot of the pain, but everything hurts now. He certainly hadn't felt what he suspects are broken ribs and fingers before now.

He wonders why they would have used a charm that stopped his pain, but guesses it was because they figured Tony wanted a new, unharmed slave. He's completely incapable of doing chores in this state, so maybe it was so Tony could put him to work? But why only make it temporary? It made no sense.

He dimly realizes he's bleeding on Tony's carpet. Great. His master is certainly not going to be pleased when he finds _that_. He's not gushing blood or anything, but he's still bleeding enough that he should probably move. There's really no point in beating him now, but Tony might decide to punish him for messing up his floors anyways.

With herculean effort, he manages to get to his feet, gasping at the pain from his ribs, and staggers over to the tiled kitchen, where the blood will be easier to clean off the floor. He has no doubt he'll be cleaning it up later.

He remembers he's supposed to be alphabetizing DVDs. Hopefully doing up to letter _F_ is enough, because he can't do any more now. But if Tony decides it's not enough, he has every right to punish him for not doing it and instead lying bleeding and battered on the kitchen floor, like any Asgardian master would do.

Basically he's in a lose-lose situation since no matter what he's doing something wrong- either not doing that task and bleeding on the easier-to-clean tiled floor or continuing to organize the DVDs and most likely ruining the rug where all the DVDs are. No matter what, he'll probably be punished for something.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Tony isn't really paying attention in this meeting, so he's not even sure what it's about. He'd really rather be back in his tower, but that apparently wasn't an option.

Tony's "Stark Phone" rings unexpectedly, and everybody's looking at him. Tony doesn't care, as he's already heading out the door. Pepper will probably smooth things over anyways.

It's Jarvis. "Sir, I think you should probably see this. Actually, you might want to come back to your tower."

What? Was his tower under attack or something? Was Loki causing mayhem or trying to escape? But then Jarvis shows him a view of the kitchen from one of his cameras. There is a figure huddled in a fetal position on the floor.

The figure is thin to the point of emaciation. His arms are practically bone-thin and covered in bruises and cuts, and he's bleeding on the floor. He suspects the rest of his body is damaged too. Tony doesn't even recognize him at first, but then he asks the obvious.

"Is that _Loki_?"

 **So since Traffic Stats are down I'm going to have no clue if anyone reads this, which kinda stinks :(**

 **Oh. The movies that were "in between drawings and photography" were computer animation ones.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ugh.** **This took way longer than it should have to update,. This chapter was pretty hard to write for some reason. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, favs, follows and views this story has gotten :) Though traffic stats are still down :(**

 **This is one of the shorter chapters, about the same length as the first two chapters.**

Tony's first thought is _"What the hell?"_ Or something along those lines.

Seriously, why is Loki lying in a bruised and bloody heap on his kitchen floor? Was he attacked? No, Jarvis would've told him if that happened. Did Loki attack himself? Tony doubts anyone could do that to themselves, and there wouldn't be a reason for it if he had.

Maybe, Tony thinks, it's an illusion. Loki has been known to create those with his magic. Except, according to the Asgardian guards, Loki's magic was blocked. Besides, if Loki had regained his magic, wouldn't he use it to escape? Actually, if it is an illusion, maybe he did escape somehow.

Jarvis, as if reading his thoughts, informs him that this Loki is not an illusion. The AI had sent Dum-E out to prove that, yes, the god is solid, and therefore cannot be an illusion. After almost running into the Loki, Dum-E is rolling around uncertainly.

Through Jarvis, Tony tells Dum-E to clean up the blood, and the robot quickly rolls off to fetch some cleaning supplies and begin.

Tony knows all too well what Loki's going through, as the god looks a lot like what he looked like in Afghanistan. He can certainly say he wouldn't wish that kind of suffering on anyone- even his worst enemy. He's definitely not wishing it on Loki right now. That actually surprises him somewhat, since some would argue that Loki had committed more than enough crimes to merit some extreme pain, yet Tony still isn't wishing it on him. How could he wish that on anyone, when he knows what it's like?

Of course, now he's not really sure what to do. He's about to just leave and go home, but then he realizes Pepper would have his head. Ordinarily, that wouldn't stop him, but she'd likely end up at his tower if he did, which would most likely result in her finding out about Loki. Which would be... complicated, to put it mildly. It's probably best if the god residing in his tower remains a secret, for a while at least.

If he wants to keep Loki a secret, it looks like he doesn't have much choice but to go back into the meeting room and sit the stupid thing out and leave Dum-E and Jarvis to take care of the god. He's just about to take a seat when Jarvis once again contacts him about someone trying to break into his freaking tower.

Tony blinks, not believing that this day could get any worse. He excuses himself saying he has to go stop whoever's trying to break in. At least nobody tries to stop him.

It isn't until he's already out of the room and having his Iron Man suit attach itself to his body that it dawns on him that he hadn't heard any alarms the second time Jarvis contacted him. Which indicates a suspicious lack of an intruder. Jarvis confirms that the intruder had been made up as a ruse for Tony to leave, reminding him snarkily that if there _had_ been someone trying to break in, Jarvis had control of more than enough security systems to ward them off.

Tony shakes his head, grinning at the brilliance of Jarvis, and takes to the sky.

* * *

It takes him less than five minutes to fly back to his tower. The whole flight, he's wondering what happened to Loki.

He doesn't even take off his suit when he lands, instead going into his tower as Iron Man. Upon entering the kitchen, he sees that Dum-E has cleaned up the blood, actually managing to not fail miserably at something for once. Quickly, Tony kneels by the god, who seems to be on the brink of unconsciousness.

Sure he's not a doctor, but it looks like the worst injuries are broken bones, though having multiple broken bones is still pretty awful. Aside from those, Loki's covered in a million cuts and bruises and is dangerously underweight.

Trying not to jostle the god's injuries, Tony picks him up bridal style. Even though he's thin- and Tony can feel his ribs- so it's definitely not an illusion- the god still somehow weighs a ton. Maybe gods just weigh more than people. He's pretty sure Thor weighs a ton, judging by the thuds he makes when landing on the ground in battle.

Loki exhales in pain, since Tony didn't quite manage to not jostle him when picking him up. He carries the god into his room and places him on the god's bed. The sheets are most likely going to be ruined in an hour, but that's not really a concern.

As the Iron Man suit removes itself, Tony sees that Loki is now passed out, though he's not sure if it's from the pain or exhaustion.

Part of him debates about calling Bruce, since surely a doctor would be helpful. But in the end he decides against it. Bruce would probably Hulk out if he found out Loki was staying with Tony, and well, he'd been planning on keeping Loki a secret for as long as possible. Besides, he's not even sure where Bruce is.

It's not like Tony's lacking in medical supplies. He has everything he would need, and a lot he hasn't needed. None of it is really used unless he blows something up in his face in his lab (or if he just decides to blow something up for fun and gets hit by a broken piece of something), so he should have enough for Loki. He's glad he's amassed said large amount of medical supplies, since taking Loki to a hospital would result in some uncomfortable questions, and he's ruled out Bruce since he can't really be sure Bruce wouldn't hulk out upon finding out the god is in his tower.

It looks like Tony will be fixing the god with only the help of Jarvis and his robots. He does know how to patch up bruises and cuts, at least, and he sets Jarvis to looking up how to reset broken bones.

He then goes and gets the necessary supplies. Fortunately he's kept them all in one place, or he would have been searching for a while.

Arriving back at Loki's bed, he lays everything out beside the god. He figures he has to get Loki's shirt off. However, he realizes he can't pull it off without damaging some part of Loki's body, so he ends up cutting it off.

Geez, Loki is thin. Sure, Tony had felt his ribs when picking him up, and he saw the way Loki's shirt was suddenly too big for him, but actually seeing the god's ribs jutting out like that is disturbing. It looks like his stomach is jutting in, since his ribs are easily the widest part of his midsection. It's definitely not a pleasant sight, especially covered in all the injuries. Yes, Loki had said that he was fed very little in the dungeons, but Tony hadn't thought it had been _that_ bad. No wonder he could barely stomach anything now, his stomach must be tiny.

He's assuming that the dungeon guards did more than just starve the god, though. He's pretty sure they're to blame for all these injuries, and the thought makes him want to smash something. Looking at Loki is bringing back way too many painful memories of his own imprisonment in Afghanistan.

And from the sheer number of injuries on Loki's body, he expects the god had it a lot worse than he had. He can't help feeling empathetic with the god right now.

With effort, Tony forces these thoughts aside and starts trying to mend the broken god in front of him.

He starts with the bruises and cuts. Despite not having done it a lot, he's pretty good at cleaning them and bandaging them. By the end he's used a ton of gauze and, for some of the smaller injuries, band-aids. Loki practically looks like a mummy when he's done.

Next comes the more worrying aspect of the broken bones. Loki's fingers are bent at unnatural angles, and Tony wonders how on earth he was able to do anything with his hands when they were like that. Or had the injuries somehow randomly materialized? Loki certainly hadn't acted like he was in pain before.

Jarvis rattles off all the information he's found about resetting bones. Cautiously, Tony repositions one of Loki's fingers so it looks more natural while Jarvis scans Loki, telling him how to reposition it and when he's got it in the right place. Tony winces at the sound it makes, but he wraps it tightly, forming a sort of cast.

The ribs are harder, although he can easily see which ones are broken, which is sickening. But with the help of Jarvis' scans and directions and Dum-E acting as an extra hand, he manages to bandage and wrap those too.

"Sir, my scans indicate numerous injuries on Mr. Laufeyson's legs that need tending to." Jarvis says. Tony blinks. Great. He's not at all comfortable with pulling off Loki's pants, but he doesn't really have a choice. He really hopes they wear underwear back in fairyland, or this is going to be really awkward.

He decides to have Dum-E actually pull the pants down. Much to his relief, Loki is wearing underwear; he wouldn't have felt very comfortable tending to someone who's both naked and unconscious.

Just like the rest of him, Loki's legs are dangerously thin. Tony starts working on the injuries on those. Thankfully there are no more broken bones, not even toes.

While he's working, Tony still wonders what on earth Loki went through. He's assuming the dungeon guards tortured Loki, but he could have gotten the injuries somewhere else. But for now he can only imagine the torture Loki went through, and his mind keeps returning to the subject of torture (and his own experience in Afghanistan) even though he doesn't want it to.

When he starts thinking about Loki and food, he has Jarvis order a bunch of nutritional drinks. He hopes they actually arrive by tomorrow like they're supposed to. He definitely needs to get Loki so he doesn't look like he's starving to death.

By the time he's finished patching the god up, Tony certainly knows why he ended up as an engineer and not a doctor. At least he managed, though.

Instructing Jarvis to alert him when Loki wakes up, he pours himself a well deserved scotch.

 **Well, that wasn't very exciting but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. Someone asked if the other Avengers will make an appearance in this. To be honest, I don't know. I'm not really sure where this story is going. There are a couple reasons I didn't include Bruce. One is the reason I supplied in the story- that he'd probably hulk out. But I'm also just not sure I could write him, and I'm already worried about this fic being really similar to** _ **Poetic Justice.**_

 **Hopefully I'll update sooner for the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**So this took a little longer to update than I'd hoped. This is a pretty major chapter, though.**

As Loki regains consciousness, he has no idea where he is at first. But then he feels a bed underneath him, which he finds odd at first- he's only woken up in a bed a handful of times in at least a year. He hadn't had a bed in the dungeon, nor when taking over Midgard or when Thanos was torturing him before that. The only time he'd had one was in Tony's tower. Opening his eyes, he sees he's in his room in said tower.

He makes a move to sit up, and a robotic arm pushes him flat on the bed again. Not that it would have been necessary- the pain from that simple act is excruciating. Once the world is no longer reduced to just his ribs feeling like they're on fire, he looks around the room, moving only his eyes.

Really the only noticeable difference in his room is the large wheeled robot with an arm on the right side of his bed. Well, and himself. From what he can see, he's almost completely covered in bandages.

He knows the robot is one of Tony's creations. Dimly, he remembers seeing it as he was lying on the kitchen floor. Other than that, he just remembers red and gold legs and metal arms picking him up.

With horror, he realizes it must have been Tony. Which means the man now knows how weak Loki is at the moment, though undoubtedly he would have anyways. It would be all too easy for Tony to exploit Loki's weakness.

He wonders when he's going to be made to clean his blood off the kitchen floor. It's beyond him why he's even in bed in the first place. Slaves in Asgard don't get to lie around as their injuries heal.

Not that he's complaining about being allowed in bed. He's certainly going to take advantage of it. He lays back. He's so tired and he wonders why he even woke up in the first place. He's about to go back to sleep, but is prevented from doing so when his door opens and Tony walks in, flippant comment already coming out of his mouth. "Hey there Sleeping Beauty. Nice of you to join the land of the living." Loki just watches him warily.

"You can go now, Dum-E" Tony says, and the robot rolls off with a _mwoop_ sound. Tony wheels the desk chair over to the side of Loki's bed and sits down, straddling the back with his legs and resting his arms on the backrest.

"What the hell _happened_ to you?" Tony asks after just watching him for a bit. Loki doesn't answer, so Tony goes on. "How did you end up looking like that all of the sudden? And where did you get all those injuries?"

Trying to act as if it's nothing, so the man won't find out how pathetic he really is, Loki says "My time before coming here wasn't exactly pleasant."

Tony gives him a look and says "No shit." Loki gets the feeling that Tony didn't buy his nonchalance for a second.

Switching the topic in the hopes Tony won't pester him about it further, Loki says "I finished the-" (he has to stop himself from saying _stupid task_ ) "... writing assignment you gave me." His gaze goes over to his desk.

Tony is just sitting there watching him. Eventually the man says "I take it you don't want to continue the first part of this conversation." Loki doesn't answer. It's not like what he wants will matter to anyone anymore. Nobody cares about a slave's opinion. Tony's the only one who can decide when this conversation is over.

But Tony lets the topic drop. Eventually, he pushes the chair off with his feet and rolls over to the desk. He picks up the papers and looks at them, before putting them back down and looking at Loki again.

Tony is uncharacteristically quiet as he and Loki sit there, just looking at each other and waiting for the other to do something. A couple minutes of silence ensue. Loki didn't know Tony could keep his mouth shut for more than ten seconds, so this is really odd. Loki tries in vain to fight his exhaustion, but his eyes are beginning to droop and eventually he loses the fight against sleep.

* * *

Tony looks at Loki, who had just drifted off. He'd looked exhausted the whole time Tony had been in the room, so he's not surprised the god had fallen asleep. He's amazed at how peaceful the god looks. He's certainly never seen him look that relaxed before.

He hasn't gotten an answer out of Loki about what happened to make his body so damaged. For now, he'll let the god sleep, but he's going to get an answer later.

He grabs the papers off the desk. "Watch Loki for me, Jarvis." He says unnecessarily, since the AI had already been watching and had informed Tony when Loki had woken up in the first place.

"Of course, sir. I'll inform you if anything happens." Jarvis replies. Tony nods and heads out to the living room, kicking back on the couch.

He reads what the god wrote for the next chapter of _The Awesomeness of Tony Stark_. He's surprised, actually. He'd been expecting to find concealed insults throughout the entire thing at the very least. Heck he probably would have bet a bottle of finer scotch that the god would hand him pages full of blatant insults and jibes. He certainly wouldn't have guessed that the god would actually write something praising him. There had, after all, been a pretty obvious loophole in Tony's instructions when giving that task; he'd never actually _said_ what Loki wrote had to praise him. He thought the god would've jumped on it.

Once he's done reading the new chapter- which certainly is the same level as the rest of the book (not that that's exactly a high bar- even he can't say the book is actually good), he wanders over to his DVD collection. Eyes skimming over it, he sees Loki has actually alphabetized a fair portion of them.

He's about to tinker with some new designs for his suit when Jarvis interrupts the silence. "Sir, it appears Mr. Laufeyson is having a nightmare."

Just like last night. Tony shuts his laptop and places it beside him on the couch. He walks quickly to Loki's room and goes in. However, the sight greeting him is one that makes him pause. The god is clearly having a rather nasty nightmare, and Tony certainly knows the feeling.

Loki is tossing and turning and muttering in his sleep. Tony catches the words _no_ , _stop_ and _please_. It's bizarre, seeing Loki look so, well, helpless. It doesn't fit his image of the god at all. He would have thought he'd enjoy watching the god pleading in his sleep, but it's just disturbing. Nobody should have to use that agonized, pleading tone.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he decides he has to wake Loki up. He knows being woken up is vastly preferable to being left in the nightmare.

"Hey, wake up." He says but Loki doesn't. He then starts shaking the god in an effort to wake him. Suddenly a bandaged fist connects with his mouth in what is quite a punch. He blinks in surprise. Loki, probably still in the remnants of his nightmare, had lashed out when he woke up. Tony rubs his jaw, which will probably bruise later _Man,_ Loki can pack a punch, even in his emaciated form- it's probably a god thing, and he has no doubt Thor would be even worse. Loki's apparently one of the weaker gods when it comes to physical strength. But he's not mad at Loki for punching him.

Green eyes are looking at him, and then they lower and the god hastily says "My apologies for accidentally hitting you."

Tony shrugs it off. "You're fine, Bambi. Just as long as it wasn't on purpose." He rolls the desk chair back to the side of Loki's bed. They really need to talk about whatever it is that's making Loki so nervous. They're going to talk about it, whether Loki wants to or not.

* * *

Tony is once again by his bedside. Loki had woken up from a nightmare about the dungeons to realize that he had just punched his master in the face. Which will undoubtedly turn his waking life into a nightmare. He'll probably be beaten to within an inch of death for laying a hand on his master.

But for reasons he cannot even begin to fathom, Tony acts as if it's no big deal that his slave just socked him in the jaw, even as it's starting to bruise. There isn't even a hint of anger in those eyes, just... concern? Why in the world would Tony be concerned about him?

"You seemed to be having a nightmare." Tony says suddenly, studying him with a calculating gaze. He can't deny that, since Tony's tone makes it clear that he's positive it had been a nightmare.

"I was," Loki admits, before switching to a lie "but I assure you it was nothing."

Tony gives him a disbelieving look and says "It didn't sound like nothing. You were talking in your sleep, begging someone to stop doing... something." It's clear Tony has some sort of guess what the _something_ is. It's probably right too, which is infuriating.

"Was it about what happened before all of this?" Tony asks. Loki is about to lie when Tony says "No lies, okay? I want the truth."

Great. He can't just disobey a command from his master. Every slave knows that's suicide. He's already dug himself in a huge whole the past three days. No need to dig down deeper. Besides, if he did lie, Tony could probably find out the truth from Thor anyways, and then he'd know Loki lied. Fuming, he answers. "Yes."

Tony rolls his eyes and says "Great, that really cleared a lot up. Seriously, what happened? How did you get all those injuries?"

"You asked me that the last time you were in here, less than an hour ago." Loki says.

"Yeah, and you didn't answer me then." Tony counters.

Hating the man for making him talk about this and ordering him not to lie, Loki says "I was in the dungeons after returning to Asgard." Thankfully his voice doesn't give away how he feels about it.

"That's what your nightmare was about." Tony guesses. Loki doesn't answer, but his silence ends up confirming it.

Instead, Loki asks "Who did this?" referring to the bandages on his body.

"I did. I couldn't just leave you bleeding in the kitchen, now could I?" Tony says. The unasked question- at least unasked _this_ time- of _how_ that had happened hangs in the air.

Huh. He didn't know Tony could wrap up injuries. No doubt there's a lot about Tony he doesn't know about.

Then, without his brain's approval, Loki's mouth blurts out "The guards were the ones who gave me the injuries." As soon as that's out, he mentally berates himself for admitting it. Now Tony knows how weak he is, how he couldn't even defend himself.

"Did they punish you for trying to escape or something?" Tony asks. Loki wonders if he's looking for ideas for what to do if his slave tries to escape- not that Loki would be stupid enough to try. Heimdall would see him and then he'd probably be hauled back to the dungeons. If not that, he'd be punished by Tony with extreme severity.

But no. Tony actually sounded sympathetic when he asked that. Loki doesn't think he'll ever understand Tony. Why would the man be sympathetic towards his slave?

Loki still is ordered not to lie, so he doesn't. Though he really doesn't want to admit what his mouth is spouting right now. "No. They just did it to amuse themselves." He says, not quite managing to keep his voice level.

Tony looks enraged, which worries Loki greatly. " _What?!_ They fucking _tortured_ you for no reason?"

Now Loki is completely confused. Tony actually sounds as if he disapproves of Loki's treatment in the dungeons. Why should Tony care about his suffering? After everything Loki did to Midgard and to Tony himself, he thought Tony would be _glad_ to hear of his torture.

Loki's not sure how to respond.

Feigning indifference, Loki says "I'm sure you're reveling in the sight of me so pathetically weak. I bet you can't wait to add to my collection of injuries. Tell me, when are you going to do it?" The last part kind of just slipped out, but Loki's not that annoyed about that. At least he won't have to constantly worry about when he'll be punished. Assuming Tony answers, that is.

Tony's giving him this look that says he just said something very wrong. Tony doesn't speak for a bit, seeming unsure of where to start. Then he says " _What_ do you think I'm going to do?"

How can this man be a genius when something so obvious needs to be spelled out for him? Even mortals should be able to grasp a basic concept like masters beating their slaves.

"I was wondering when you are going to punish me for... everything. When you're going to decide to beat me..." Loki repeats, trying to sound as if he's not very concerned with the idea when in reality it terrifies him. But at least knowing when it's coming will be better than the uncertainty looming over his head.

Tony is staring at him again. The man raises his hands and says, apparently unable to get a comprehensive thought out "No- just, no. Okay?" He's silent for a bit more, and then when he's able to get a complete thought out, he says "Slow down for a bit. What gave you that idea?"

Although Loki thought otherwise, this conversation can get even more confusing. He doesn't answer, since he's too confused to think of a reply.

"Okay," Tony holds his hands up in a 'whoah there' kind of gesture again "Let's get something straight. I'm not going to _beat_ you. Especially not now. I'd have to be a savage to beat you in this state. But I don't beat people anyways. Especially defenseless people. I don't know about your magic fairyland, but crap like that doesn't fly here. You don't beat up someone who isn't allowed to defend themselves or can't- that's the same level of wrong as child abuse. Even if that person is you, it's still wrong. Seriously, why did you think I would beat you? I didn't do it before, so why would I do it now?"

At first, Loki wonders if he'd heard him correctly. Did he really just say he wasn't going to turn him into a punching bag like he'd been expecting?

Just to make sure, Loki asks "So you're not going to beat me... Are you going to cause some other physical harm?" The absence of beatings didn't mean he couldn't be punched around a little or slapped in the face. Not that that would be too bad, but he'd still rather avoid it.

"I don't see any reason for me to lay a hand on you in the near future. It seems punishments like copying lines work well enough." Tony says with a smirk.

It makes no sense. Why would he not use the threat of pain and actual pain to enforce his slave's obedience?

Although he doesn't understand Tony at all, he can't help but feel he lucked out big time. He's been expecting his life to be way worse than it is.

 **Okay, so now Loki has less to worry about. I hope it's not too early for him to figure out Tony's not going to beat him.**

 **Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. And Happy Holidays to those who don't.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I'm so sorry I took so long to update this. I started another story and was writing that for a bit.**

 **So, Christmas was pretty cool. I got all three Iron Man movies and both Thor movies. I guess it's sorta late to be talking about Christmas, but I've been watching them since then. Which hopefully will help with this story.**

 **As always, thanks to all you awesome people who reviewed, followed, favorited or read this story.**

Loki flips a page in the book he's reading about Norse mythology, glad he can at least hold a book without any pain- though that's probably due to the painkillers Tony made him take. He's practically finished with this book and he only started it a couple hours ago. It's certainly a heck of a lot more interesting than that stupid _Awesomeness of Tony Stark_ book, but then again, almost anything is. It's actually pretty entertaining reading about himself, Thor and others through the eyes of mortals. Even if some of it is completely wrong.

He'd been very surprised when Tony had dumped a huge pile of books on his bedside table. But Tony is quite the atypical master, so he really shouldn't have been surprised that the man lets his slave use his stuff. Even though such a thing would never happen in Asgard.

Then again, slaves in Asgard wouldn't be allowed to lounge around in bed like this, but Tony had made it clear Loki was to remain in bed until he was fully healed. He'd even gone so far as to make it in order.

So now Tony has the burden of taking care of his slave. Not that Loki had been particularly useful before. Now that he thinks about it, he's mostly been a burden during the 4 or 5 days he's been here. The thought doesn't sit well with the god. Tony could be annoyed about that and just not be showing it, or maybe Loki's just misreading him when he thinks he doesn't seem annoyed. Who wouldn't be annoyed at a useless slave? He certainly doesn't want to do anything else to annoy Tony- he has enough things he hasn't paid for yet. Yet here he is, lying around uselessly, albeit on on Tony's nonsensical orders.

Though if Tony isn't going to beat him, how exactly is he going to punish Loki for all his wrongdoings? Writing lines again? Sure that was annoying in it's own way, but as far as punishments went it really was pretty mild. It's certainly preferable to being beaten.

Tony really doesn't make any sense. Not that much of anything that's happened since his arrival at Stark Tower has made much sense either. His entire life has been one big confusion the past few days.

Not wanting to think about that stuff right now, Loki returns to his book. He finishes the rest in half an hour and sets it next to him on the bed. He can't reach the bedside table from where he is, and he doesn't want to risk injuring himself leaning over. He glances over at the other books, annoyingly out of reach.

He simply stares at them for five minutes. Then Tony enters the room.

"What're you doing? Moping about how you failed at taking over Midgard? Plotting another attempt at world domination? Sheesh. I went through all the trouble picking these books out for you and you don't even read them." Tony says in a mock hurt voice.

"I read this one." Loki feels the need to defend himself. Things could get very ugly if Tony thought he was actually plotting another attempt at world domination. He isn't, and he certainly couldn't carry any plot out without his magic anyways. He holds up the Norse mythology book and Tony smirks.

"Yeah I figured you'd go for that one. Tell me, did we Midgardians get it right?" Tony says as he places a small box with cylinders poking out the top on the desk. When Loki says a fair amount of it is right, Tony whoops and fist pumps the air as if it's somehow his accomplishment. Loki fights the urge to roll his eyes at the stupidity.

"So, are you hungry? I just got these from the store down the street. A lot more are supposed to arrive tomorrow but I figured you need some for today." Tony says, and Loki looks at him in confusion. There's not any food in the room, so why's Tony acting like there is? Tony decides the answer before Loki can say anything. "Yeah, you should probably eat something. You're skinnier than some anorexic supermodels." Loki briefly wonders what _anorexic_ means, but then reminds himself that it doesn't really matter.

"Drink this." Tony says, handing him a small plastic bottle that he'd just put a straw in. Apparently the cylinders sticking out of the box are the bottle tops. Loki looks suspiciously at it. _Boost Plus_. Whatever that is. Below that are the words _nutritional shake_.

The only explanation Loki can think of for this is that Tony has decided he doesn't deserve real food anymore.

Tony is giving him a look. "It's not poison, you know. Though I can't say I know what it tastes like. But at least they made it chocolate flavored instead of tomato flavored or something disgusting like that." After a bit where Loki is still looking at it suspiciously, Tony asks sarcastically "Do I have to stick the straw in between your lips for you?"

Loki sighs and sucks a bit of liquid through the straw. It's certainly a unique taste, though it's not _bad_ , per se. For something masters give their slaves as a replacement for real food, it's actually a lot better than one would expect. At least it tastes like chocolate. By the end, he's feeling full even though it wasn't much liquid at all.

"Well, I can't stick around all day. I'll be in my lab for a bit, but I'll be up in about an hour to change your bandages. Just tell Jarvis if you need anything." Tony says. Then he walks over to Loki's bedside table. He grabs a book and thrusts it in to Loki's hands.

"If you're looking for something to read, try this. You might like it." Loki looks at the cover. _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone._

"Harry Potter..." Loki murmurs. Why does that name sound familiar? Suddenly it hits him. He'd seen it less than five hours ago, back when his injuries were still hidden. "One of your... _DVD_ s had Harry Potter on it too." Tony looks surprised that Loki brought this up, and frankly Loki's surprised at himself too.

"Yeah they made movies of the books." Tony says as he leaves the room. The door still locks behind him, though it's pointless. It's not like Loki can go anywhere.

Loki looks at the cover and opens the book skeptically. He can't believe he's stooping to Midgardian entertainment (the Norse mythology book doesn't count in his mind) but he supposes it beats staring at the walls. Not that he'd ever admit that.

The book contains a ton of Midgardian references Loki can't make heads or tails of. What's a remote controlled airplane? What's a computer game or a television or a boa constrictor? He has no clue what a train is, though it's apparently some form of transportation.

As he reads, his brain can't help noticing similarities between Harry's life with the Dursleys and his own, much to his annoyance. Both lived with people other than their biological parents, and were certainly not the favorite child. Both Dudley and Thor seemed to get all the love. Additionally, Loki and Harry's lives were similar because most people disapproved of their magic. Frigga had been the one to teach Loki magic, but aside from her everyone in Asgard said it wasn't something a prince should be doing, and that it was a pathetic way of fighting.

He can't believe he's connecting to a fictional child in a book written by a mortal.

Even more astonishing- he's actually enjoying this book. It was written by a human. He is a god. It shouldn't be nearly as entertaining as it is. He shoves these thoughts out of his mind. No. He's _not_ enjoying it, he tells himself. He just briefly thought he was since it's more interesting than copying lines or staring at the ceiling.

But deep down, he's not entirely fooling himself with that argument.

* * *

Tony is back on the sofa, holograms scattered around him as he works on the transparent 3d model of a new Iron Man suit hovering in the air in front of him. He hadn't gone to the lab like he'd originally intended, instead deciding to work from the comfort of his couch.

Jarvis informs him it's been an hour since he left Loki. He blinks. It certainly hadn't felt that long. Though losing track of time when he's working is by no means a rare occurrence for him. Luckily he has Jarvis to keep track for him.

He minimizes all the holograms and gets up, walking to Loki's room. He's greeted by the sight of Loki absorbed in _Harry Potter_ when he enters the god's room. He smirks at the sight. The god practically has his nose buried in it. When Loki notices Tony, he acts as if the book is something he's putting up with out of pure boredom. Tony rolls his eyes. Why must Loki act like everything on Midgard is beneath him?

Perhaps he should make Loki copy more lines about how Midgard isn't beneath him sometime. The message apparently hadn't stuck the first time. But he's not going to make Loki do that when he's still recovering.

"So, Rudolph, learn any new spells in that book?" He asks, but the god just responds to his teasing with a withering glance. Tony sighs. So Loki's clearly not in a talkative mood, not that that's anything new.

"What part are you at?" Tony asks, needing to fill the silence with _something_. Loki sighs as if talking to him is a horrible burden and says "Harry's first potions lesson."

"Ah. Do you see yourself in Snape at all? Because I can. You both have greasy hair and everything." It's a sadly unoriginal line compared to his usual standards. But really, annoying Loki is too much fun, Tony thinks as he mentally cackles at Loki's affronted expression. He doubts anyone's ever told Loki he has greasy hair. Admittedly, Loki doesn't _actually_ have greasy hair, but it doesn't matter. Whoever said all insults had to be accurate?

"All right, Reindeer Games. Let's have a look at those bandages." Tony says, pulling the covers down, away from Loki's torso. A lot of them have turned red from blood, which wasn't surprising, but Tony had hoped it wouldn't happen so quickly.

As he gets to work, Loki suddenly asks "Where are my clothes?"

Focusing on changing Loki's bandages, Tony distractedly answers "In the dresser. I had to take them off in order to patch you up." He stops for a bit as he applies pressure to a particularly nasty cut on Loki's stomach. Loki doesn't make a sound, most likely out of pride. Though it may not even hurt him too much, seeing as Tony made Loki take a ton of painkillers earlier.

"Dum-E pulled off your pants, if that's what you're worried about. All I can say is I'm glad you wear underwear back in fairyland." It suddenly occurs to Tony that maybe having a robot pull down your pants is creepier than having a human do it. He glances at Loki, but the god's face doesn't reveal if that's what he's thinking or not.

"I couldn't get your shirt off without risking injuring you further, so I had to cut it off. But all that black leather was a little over the top, don't you think? You looked like you belonged in a renaissance festival." He notices Loki glaring at him. Probably for the implied jab about his fashion sense or something.

Loki doesn't respond to anything else he says while changing his bandages, but when he finishes and hands the god another nutritional drink, the god finally speaks again. "What's the point of these?" Loki asks, looking at it curiously but still seeming kind of grumpy.

"It's supposed to help you gain weight so you stop looking like a skeleton." Tony replies. Surprisingly, Loki doesn't object anything in that statement. Especially considering he seems to be in a bad mood all of the sudden, if the way he's glaring at him is any indication.

Tony sighs and turns to leave. There's a lot more he'd rather be doing than hanging around with sulky gods of mischief.

* * *

Loki watches Tony go, not at all sorry to see him leave.

It annoys him greatly that Tony apparently just cut up his shirt without a second thought. Logically, Loki knows it had to be done. Trying to get it off him without cutting it probably would have injured him further. But what really annoys the god is that Tony didn't have to ask. Admittedly, he _couldn't_ ask since Loki had been unconscious, but he probably wouldn't have if Loki had been awake.

Tony doesn't need to ask because Loki doesn't even own the clothes he's wearing anymore. Slaves don't own anything. One of the many perks of his current situation, Loki thinks with sarcastic bitterness.

A destroyed shirt should be the least of his concerns, but it bugs him anyways. Those clothes are the last thing connecting him to his life before, when he wasn't Tony Stark's slave. Though he supposes he still has his pants and boots, so he didn't totally loose that connection.

Hard to believe this new chapter of his life had started less than a week ago, he thinks. But then again, it's hard to believe that less than seven hours ago he was lying bleeding on the kitchen floor.

He sips some more of the _Boost Plus_. He glances down at the Harry Potter book, but he doesn't feel like reading. Once he's done drinking it (again, his stomach feels a lot fuller than it should), he lays back against his pillow and stares out the window, alone with his thoughts.

* * *

It feels rather strange, eating dinner without Loki, even though he's only eaten with the god for a handful of days. It's certainly a lot quieter, even though he does most of the talking when Loki's around anyways.

Once he's done, he debates about what to do. He eventually decides to kick back and watch a movie instead of work in his lab.

After getting up and dumping the dishes in the dishwasher, he pours himself a glass of scotch and scans his DVD collection. Having part of it alphabetized is actually kind of nice, he realizes. Maybe he'll make Loki do the rest sometime.

Eventually, he picks _Avatar_ and slides it into his DVD player. He kicks back on the couch, ready for a couple hours of entertainment.

Fifteen minutes in, however, Jarvis interrupts. "Sir, Miss Potts is at the door. She wishes to speak with you."

Tony sighs. Normally this wouldn't annoy him (unless she was just talking about work) but he's pretty sure this visit is about what he missed at the meeting earlier today. Right now, she's the last person he wants to see.

"Tell her I'm busy, Jarvis." He says.

About half a minute later, the AI says "She doesn't believe that, sir. She says your probably watching a movie like you do most nights you're alone."

Really? Pepper knows him too well. Tony runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "Fine. Let her in, Jarvis."

He hopes he'll manage to keep Loki a secret.

 **Well, someone else finally shows up. Even if they're not an Avenger.**

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm not entirely sure what I think of it. By the way, I know firsthand what Boost Plus tastes like.**

 **UPDATE 2/15/16: I'm so sorry everyone! I think I need to put this story on hold, because trying to write two stories about Tony and Loki living together is a lot harder than I thought. My brain keeps mixing up the different universes.**


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